hope

beautiful fragile flower

tend it well

Never give up No matter what is going on, never give up. Develop the heart. Be compassionate. Not just to your friends, but to everyone. Be compassionate. Work for peace. In your heart and in the world. Work for peace. And I say again Never give up No matter what is going on around you. Never give up.

Tich Nhat Hanh

After forty years of offering our three year programs in the United States and Europe, the Center for Intentional Living has graduated its last three-year training program. We continue to offer annual CIL graduate retreats and study groups. We have given much thought to how we wish for this website to continue its journey in a way to best carry forth the spirit of CIL.

Our teachings have centered primarily on child development and the traumas of childhood that reverberate emotionally, somatically and spiritually into adulthood and into future generations. At this time, we are committed to carrying forward our teachings into the area of social justice.

We who have knowledge of trauma are aware of how witnessing news of what is happening at the southern border and other places of disaster can cause us to be overwhelmed and thus prone to shut down, to freeze, and to feel helpless. It is our hope that this website will offer a sense of community in which to find a center of inner resilience from which to take action. We need one another in community in which to speak on behalf of the children and families and the earth and wildlife, none of whom have their voices and desperately need ours. We hope you will join us so that we support one another in compassionate involvement in doing our part to lift up and mend what is broken.

Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention.

L.R. Knost

What Can I do to help?

Latest Reflections

A CIL Reflection on Covid-19: Written by Deborah AllenApril 2020 COVID-19Dear grown kids I chose and grandkids that I consider mine, It’s 5:15 am and I am already up with my coffee. Not because I am farming or commuting, but because my nervous system is on high alert. Some ancient part of me is frightened. As you know, I have spent my whole adult life… …

A CIL REFLECTION: IN THE TIME OF THE CORONAVIRUS JUDITH S. SCHMIDT PHDIt was twenty years ago, during the time of Passover and Easter. With a small group of dear friends, I travelled to the home of my ancestors in Poland. It was springtime, just like now. We went to visit the small village, the shtetl, where my family came from. I asked people where the cemetery… …